NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter and Rover makes progress on Mars

The U.S space agency reported that its experimental helicopter and rover push their limits further on Mars. This flight of the helicopter, called Ingenuity was its ninth flight on Mars.  The space agency today in its official press release stated that this flight has been the most successful mission of Ingenuity so far.

NASA’s reported that the helicopter has broken new records like the length of the flight, distance, and speed of the flight.The flight is controlled by NASA’s team operating from its California based Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Describing the ninth flight, the team said Ingenuity for the first time traveled across the “unfriendly terrain.” The flight had previously travelled to flat terrains and had taken shorter trips, stated the team.

Ingenuity is working with NASA’s space rover or Perseverance explorer. Currently both, the Ingenuity and the rover are in an area if the Red Planet called “Séítah”. The area is covered by sandy hills, rocks, and craters.The unfriendly terrain can pose challenge for Ingenuity leading to the possibility of crash during flight or upon landing. The reason for the fight to crash is that it is designed with an algorithm which will allow the aircraft to fly across the flat ground, said the operating team.

The main aim of Ingenuity was to demonstrate that the helicopter can launch in the airs of Mars, fly, and land on Mars. The helicopter was not built to carry out complex searches and other operations on the Red Planet, stated the team. But, as the aircraft has done so well in the previous tests, the team decided to push its limits.